Future Apple Silicon Mac Product Grid...?

[Boil]

Apple was all over the place with product SKUs before Steve returned, then he killed all that noise & introduced the 2x2 product grid...

The Consumer portion had the iBook & the iMac; the Pro portion had the PowerBook & the PowerMac...

I feel Apple needs to return to a simpler product grid, say 3x3...

Consumer - 12" MacBook Air / 24" iMac / Mac mini
Mx series SoC - 8-core CPU (4P/4E) / 8-core GPU / WiFi only, no Ethernet (Apple has this on the low-end 24" ASi iMac now)
Options would be RAM (8GB / 16GB) & SSD (256GB / 512GB / 1TB)

Prosumer - 14" MacBook / 27" iMac / Mac Cube
MxX series SoC - 10-core CPU (8P/2E) / Gigabit Ethernet
16-core GPU has 32GB RAM / 32-core GPU has 64GB RAM
Options would be SSD (512GB / 1TB / 2TB)

Pro - 16" MacBook Pro / 30" iMac Pro / Mac Pro
MxZ (P?) series multi-SoC packages - Two (laptop & desktops) or Four (desktops only, not in available in the laptop) SoCs
Two SoC - 20-core CPU (16P/4E) / 64-core GPU / 128GB RAM / 10Gb Ethernet
Four SoC - 40-core CPU (32P/8E) / 128-core GPU / 256GB RAM / 10Gb Ethernet
Options would be SSD (1TB / 2TB / 4TB)

This would give Apple nine product SKUs, and eighteen SKUs for the assorted SoC / RAM / GPU / SSD configurations...?

Discuss...! ;^p

 

[gpat]

It would be something like

M* - Mac Mini / Macbook Air / iMac 24" / iPad Pro
M*X - Mac Mini Pro / Macbook Pro (14/16) / iMac 28"
M*Z - Mac pro only and its configuration is anyone's guess

Together with the A* chipset line to be featured in phones and entry level tablets
I guess you could put it in a 2x2 product grid with 2 products for each target

	Desktop	Portable
Consumer	Mini M1 / iMac 24"	Macbook Air / various iPads
Professional	Mini M1X / iMac 28"	Pro 14" / Pro 16"

The Mac Pro would be out of this scheme and it makes sense because it's way more of a niche product than anything else

 

[altaic]

According to the schematics and PCB layout that REvil leaked in April (and rumors/analysis about the SoCs):

• Macbook Pro 14"
  • 8 Perf Cores, 2 Efficiency Cores, 16 GPU Cores
  • 16GB/32GB RAM
  • 512GB/1TB/2TB/4TB/8TB Storage
  • TouchID
  • Magsafe
  • HDMI
  • SD Card Interface
  • 4x USB-C controllers
  • No touchbar; full-size function keys

Extrapolating:

• Macbook Pro 16"
  • 16 Perf Cores, 4 Efficiency Cores, 32 GPU Cores
  • 32GB/64GB RAM
  • 512GB/1TB/2TB/4TB/8TB Storage
  • TouchID
  • Magsafe
  • HDMI
  • SD Card Interface
  • >= 4x USB-C controllers
  • No touchbar; full-size function keys

There could also be a 16" MBP with the same specs as the 14", but with much greater battery life.

The Mac Mini should have at least the 16” MBP specs, given the relaxed design constraints (no battery, increased TDP, etc.).

 

[Admiral]

According to the schematics and PCB layout that REvil leaked in April (and rumors/analysis about the SoCs):

• Macbook Pro 14"
  • 8 Perf Cores, 2 Efficiency Cores, 16 GPU Cores
  • 16GB/32GB RAM
  • 512GB/1TB/2TB/4TB/8TB Storage
  • TouchID
  • Magsafe
  • HDMI
  • SD Card Interface
  • 4x USB-C controllers
  • No touchbar; full-size function keys

Extrapolating:

• Macbook Pro 16"
  • 16 Perf Cores, 4 Efficiency Cores, 32 GPU Cores
  • 32GB/64GB RAM
  • 512GB/1TB/2TB/4TB/8TB Storage
  • TouchID
  • Magsafe
  • HDMI
  • SD Card Interface
  • >= 4x USB-C controllers
  • No touchbar; full-size function keys

There could also be a 16" MBP with the same specs as the 14", but with much greater battery life.

The Mac Mini should have at least the 16” MBP specs, given the relaxed design constraints (no battery, increased TDP, etc.).

Sixteen performance cores and 32 GPU cores in the 16" MacBook Pro would establish wild expectations for the Mac Pro. I don't think so. We'll see tomorrow, though, won't we?

 

[Boil]

The differentiation between SoCs is GPU count & RAM, the CPU core counts (8P/2E) should be the same across the line (same as with the M1, huh...); rumor has the 16-core GPU SKU (Jade C-Chop) available with 16GB & 32GB RAM, but if you want the 32-core GPU SKU (Jade C-Die) you have to also pony up for 64GB of RAM...?

And to get the most out of these SoCs, rumor also has Jade 2C & Jade 4C being two and four of the Jade C-Die SoCs lashed together...?

M1

• 8-core CPU (4P/4E)
• 7-core GPU (8-core GPU option)
• 16-core Neural Engine
• 8GB RAM (16GB RAM option)

M1X (Jade C-Chop / Jade C-Die)

• 10-core CPU (8P/2E)
• 16-core GPU (32-core GPU option)
• 16-core Neural Engine
• 16GB RAM (32GB & 64GB RAM options)

Jade 2C (Two Jade C-Die)

• 20-core CPU (16P/4E)
• 64-core GPU
• 32-core Neural Engine
• 128GB RAM

Jade 4C (Four Jade C-Die)

• 40-core CPU (32P/8E)
• 128-core GPU
• 64-core Neural Engine
• 256GB RAM

 

[iPadified]

I misread the title for Grid computing .

A grid of a macs, iPhone and iPads would be interesting if connected with high speed USB-C.

So you believe that scaling will be done with multiple Jade-C-Dies? Make sense though.

 

[thingstoponder]

I don’t see why people so many feel they need to stick to some arbitrary grid of products. Do you think they’re losing sales because the product line is too confusing? Every other company has a far more confusing lineup. The company is doing just fine.